1. Wild elephants won’t let humans ride them

All wild animals need to be trained before they will perform for humans. But elephant training is particularly brutal.

The ancient tradition is called the Phajaan. It translates as ‘the breaking of the spirit.’

2. They have to be trained as babies

Calves are so young when they enter the Phajaan they’re still suckling from their mothers.

Mothers and calves need to be forcibly separated. They’ll cry out for each other for weeks, but they will never be reunited.

3. There’s a reason it’s nicknamed ‘The Crush’

A key part of the Phajaan is a tiny pen. Calves are tied in tightly. Fixed in a standing position. They are unable to walk, sit, lie down or move in anyway.

They will remain here for up to a week. Starved of food and sleep.

4. Torture will continue until the spirit breaks

The pen alone is not enough to break an elephant’s wild spirit.

They will be beaten, burned and stabbed. Any object can be turned into a weapon. Bullhooks and a bamboo stick with a nail through it are popular choices. Targeting the most sensitive areas: inner ears, trunks and behind their ears.

5. Not all babies spirits can be broken

Half of the calves who go into the Phajaan can’t survive it.

The other half eventually break. Bloodied and broken they are simply terrified of more pain. And will do absolutely anything to avoid it.

They begin to perform tasks without resistance. One of the first is accepting someone sitting on their back.

6. Bullhooks are key to controlling elephants

Left: bullhook in a zoo. Right: Ringling Circus version of the Phajaan in the US with a bullhook.

If you’ve been elephant riding you will have seen them. Or even in some zoos.

Discrete jabs in a sensitive areas is a sharp reminder of the Phajaan. Just having one in sight of an elephant is an intimidating threat.

If you can see bullhooks, you know the elephant has been through the Phajaan (or a western version of it).

7. Elephant backs aren’t strong enough to carry humans

Horses have rounded vertebrae joints. This means they can distribute weight along the spinal column. By comparison elephant’s vertebrae have tight joints and protrude upwards, so they struggle to distribute weight as well.

In plain English: the gaps along their spine makes carrying weight painful.

Some argue elephant’s necks are strong enough to support one person. But the weight of a bench and multiple tourists on their back is crippling.

Join the ethical elephant tourism movement! ??

Baby elephants don’t deserve this.

As you can see in the video, a lot of mahouts are cruel to their elephants. But there is a growing trend of loving mahouts.

For example Elephant Nature Park in Chiang Mai refuses to use bullhooks, and allows elephants to wander free.

A female mahout guiding her blind elephant by the ear in Kanchanaburi

I met this awe-inspiring mahout in Kanchanaburi. She wouldn’t let her blind elephant get involved with tourists. She also refused to use a bullhook.

Instead she gently guided around her by the ear, talking and singing to it all the time. No bullhook needed.

Bullhooks, riding and aggressive mahouts are not necessary anymore.

Put an ethical elephant experience on your bucket list instead ??

THE ELEPHANT CAMPS TO AVOID

We’ve named & shamed the guilty elephant riding camps, so you know where to avoid…

Deceptive elephant camps. They wash elephants rather than ride them and claim to care for them. But the elephants are not allowed to roam free, they’re forcibly moved from one activity to the next. They also still perform little circus tricks. Like spraying water, lifting or hugging tourists with their trunks or ‘elephant kisses’ sucking tourists faces with their trunks.

As long as there are chains, bull hooks and intimidation the elephants are not free…